Of Spirits of Fire and Light
by HFY298
Summary: Two branches of humanity under the threat of extinction. Can they join together and prevail? Or will they be snuffed out by the onslaught of their foes? I've always enjoyed the Destiny/Halo crossovers but I thought that it'd be nice to see something other than just spartan revived as guardian stories. Up for adoption- college is more challenging than I thought it would be.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own any characters save for my OCs, any references to other fanfics give full credit to their authors. **

02/04/2541

UNSC Spirit of Fire: Status; MIA

Location: Interstellar void

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd generation Smart AI

Serina POV

'10 years… they had been adrift for nearly 10 years…' Serina thought to herself. This would normally be a death sentence for a Smart AI such as herself, thankfully though, the Spirit, as a former colony ship was equipped with long term AI storage. This would allow her to stave off rampancy for nearly a century, much less the decade they had been adrift. In another time they would have been caught in an unknown slip-space rupture and sent to the mysterious construct that is the Ark, but fate decided that things would be different this time around.

ping…

'Now that's odd…' Serina thought to herself. The Spirits sensors had found an anomaly within a star system they were set to pass by. This was a crucial moment for the AI as well as the crew of the spirit. They had made considerable progress in the last decade. Serina had finally pinpointed their location in relation to UNSC space and found that they were roughly 30-40 lightyears away from the UNSC colony world of Actium. This would put them within reach of a distress beacon in some three thousand years. Naturally this was an unacceptable outcome, as the ship would fall apart before entering range, much less the crew in cryo. As such, Serina changed course towards the anomaly, in hopes that it may hold something that could be her crew's salvation. Little did she know that it would not merely be her crew's salvation, but humanity's.

03/04/4522

Location: Nessus Core

Persons of interest

Raz-22 Exo Hunter: Nightstalker

Spark- Ghost: Void Shell

Raz-22 POV

"Spark, what is that?" Said Raz-22. "I have no idea." There in the Nessus Core, where there should have only been a ball of molten metal, floated a giant vex gate. "Sooo, how long has it been since the last patrol came down here?" asked Raz. "A little bit before that insane warlock killed the giant vex on The Levaithan." Reported Sparks. Raz whipped his head towards the shard of light, "So you're telling me NO ONE has been down here for two years! We need to check this out!" Shouted Raz with anticipation. "NO WAY," Sparks yelled, "We need to tell the Vanguard before you just jump right in, it could lead straight into the Black Garden for all we know!" "Fine," groaned Raz, "But the second after we report we're going in!"

03/03/2541

UNSC Spirit of Fire: Status: MIA

Location: Star System PF-22B

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd generation Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Captain of The SoF

Docter Ellen Anders: Scientific consultant

Cutters POV

Cold, I wake up to an extreme cold. I cough as I fall to my knees and I see flashes of memory, a world burning, a world exploding, echoes. The joys of waking up from cryo. "Serina, what's going on?" asks Cpt Cutter. "Good to see you're doing well too Cpt. As for your question we have found an anomaly. A big one, in fact it bears an eerie resemblance to the planet we blew up a while back." Serina muttered. "Another one?!" exclaimed the Cpt, as he began to walk to the bridge. That could be bad, the covenant were crawling all over the place on that world, much less that alien parasite. Running into either of them again could spell the end for them. "Fortunately despite the initial resemblance I have determined that this world does not share an origin with the previous one. I have woken yourself, the bridge crew, Dr. Anders and a small ground team if we decide to investigate the surface." explained Serina. "Good work, Serina, I'll be visiting Docter Anders to see what she has to say about this development. And Serina, have someone make me a coffee." "Aye sir."

Anders POV

This was so fascinating! As I looked over the data that we were receiving from this new world as I looked down at its' surface. It was a dull stone grey, not that uncommon. What was uncommon was the silvery lines that cut across the surface, they appeared likes veins, or perhaps circuitry that lined the entire world. And if the sensor date was correct unlike the previous installation, this place was brand new. Not really new, it had been there for thousands of years but it had only recently been abandoned, less than two years ago! As fascinating as that was it meant that the owners could certainly come back to check on this place. We'd need to be quick. "Serina get me the captain."

Ground team AAR (After action report)

That place was freaky. Not alien murder parasite freaky but more of an abandoned house creepy. According to what Doctor Anders was getting from her tech stuff, that place was some kinda experimental portal hub. It was run by some organo… syntho… things, that decided to cut and run after the top AI in charge got up and killed. Normally that meant that things would apparently default to next in command… but whatever that was got killed too. SO now we're on some mission to try and hook Serina up to the core and see if she could get the portal running. Oh yeah and this planet is hollow too. What is with aliens and the hollow planets! We marines prefer our solid ground to be well, solid. Still we were coming up on the portal control. Damn that thing was huge! The gate could easily fit a covvie supercarrier, much less the spirit. Still we did our job and hooked up the adapter to the core and got Serina in, that's when all hell broke loose.

Serina POV

'I'm in' I thought triumphantly. As I looked around the digital environment I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the immense nature of the system. You could easily fit hundreds of Smart AI in the space they used for just ONE of their core AI! I shuddered a bit at the implication before getting to the task at hand. Using the portal to send us back to UNSC space. Immediately I ran into an issue. 'You can only go between portals huh…' I sighed. This network was designed to ONLY send things between two portals Still it was possible that the other end was closer to UNSC space then we were currently. So, I began to check the destination coordinates. It was then that I noticed something terrifying. "No no, this can't be right!" I exclaimed as I double, triple and quintuple checked the destination coordinates. "Serina, what is it?!" asked Dr. Anders. "These coordinates, I know them! This portal leads to SOL!" I panicked and said. With that every single person on the bridge froze. Sol, as in the home system I know they were thinking. How? Had the Covenant found new allies in these aliens? Had they built a portal to let the Covenant directly strike the cradle of humanity? "Serina," the Cpt began, "you said earlier that the highest ranked AI of this instillation, Argos, correct, was killed along with it's fellow ranking AI a few years back right?" With that order seemed to be restored on the bridge. They had all been briefed. They knew that The AI had been destroyed. If that was the case it was possible humanity was still fighting and they had a home to return to after all.

"Serina, recall the ground teams and activate the portal. Humanity needs to know what we found." Commanded the Cpt. "Aye sir, recalling the ground teams and activating the portal." I repeated. With that the portal once an immense circlet of silvery metal began to hum to life and the very surface of the planet split apart to reveal a hole big enough to allow even the biggest ships the UNSC had to offer to pass. 'This was going to be interesting' I thought to myself.

No POV

The silver metal sparked, immense beams of blinding energy shooting between the frame. The titanic ship, forged of dull grey metal sailed boldly into the gate, into the unknown. Those aboard thought that they would be home soon. That they had completed their duty yet though they would arrive at their home, it would not be the one they remembered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, Author here. I wasn't expecting anything out of this so it's great hearing feedback! To answer OPP's questions both the DU and HU are not set in the same universe here. With all the fancy stuff the vex have I figured it wasn't too much of a stretch to give them an interdimensional portal. So they're in alternate universes, hope that clears that up. As for the time difference, the overall timeline in the Destiny universe is REALLY vague. But roughly from the discovery of the Traveler (early to mid 21****st**** century) to the present (Season of Dawn, sorry Cayde fans) it is about two thousand years, give or take a couple hundred years, so I'm putting them at the year 4522 in the Destiny Universe. [ Timeline for those interested.** ** . ] As for the Spirit, I had them find the vex planet only 10 years after the shield world to give the Halo universe a slight chance of success against the covenant. In the year 2541 it would give the Spirit about a year to run around Destiny's Sol system and gain stuff to take back to the UNSC before they reach the point of no return. (I consider the Battle of Phi Serpentis, or Admiral Cole's last stand the beginning of the end for the UNSC.) And I'll try to work on Guardian Ghost dialogue OPP, this is my first fic and it's kinda hard writing something that could either be floating next to you or chilling inside your head. Still, today the SOF encounters both the Guardians and the Leviathan. **

03/05/4522

Location: The Last City, Vanguard War Room. (AU, if I say that the Vanguard at least rebuilt their planning room at the new tower location then they did.)

Persons of interest

Ikora Rey: Warlock Vanguard

Zavalla: Titan Vanguard

Raz-22 + Sparks

Saint-14: Legendary Titan

Ikora POV

"This is concerning…" I say as I gaze at the diagram of the massive vex gate. "Could they be preparing for a full assault on the leviathan… as retaliation for the destruction of Argos?" theorizes Zavalla. 'Only thinking in terms of military power as always.' I smirk to myself. "Unlikely, the vex never build gates this big for good reason. A standard vex gate could send you from one end of the universe to another in the blink of an eye. There is only one thing a gate of this magnitude could be used for." I say with confidence. "SO it is going to The Black Garden!" Raz-22 shouts. "Or some form of Vex dimension anyhow. It could be anything from the Black Garden to an some vex ascendant plane for all we know." I tell Raz-22. "What exactly the gate leads to remains to be seen, what we must do it plan for whatever could come through it. Raz, I hope you left some form of monitoring equipment near the gate, we cannot be caught unaware if our enemies, both Vex or other, hope to utilize it." Zavalla asks the hunter.

Swoosh

With a flash of light, Sparks materializes next to Raz's head. "No problem Zavalla, we left behind a hidden beacon to monitor the gate for activity." The ghost reports confidently. "Good, Ikora, we need the best for this, I will ask the Guardian to go to Nessus and appraise this situation personally. In the meantime I would like you to ask Osiris to look for information on the gate in the Vex Network in the Infinite Forest." Zavalla commands. "Very well, I'm certain Osiris would be very interested in this. It is not often the Vex undertake projects of this nature." I say with certainty. "You are quite right, in fact he has already asked me to help the Guardian with this venture." says a heavily accented voice, as heavy steps can be heard approaching. There standing at the entrance of the room is a titan in silver armor, with an unmistakable plumed helmet atop his head. "Damn! We've even got Saint-14! Can I come too!" Begs Raz-22. "HAHA, why certainly, the more the merrier." The Legendary Titan chuckles. "I hope you don't mind if we get going though. Osiris says that the Guardian is on his way to Nessus as we speak." Saint-14 explains.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Then without warning, Sparks begins to emit a shrill noise. "Ow! Watch where you're beeping!" Raz complains. "What was that!?" Zavalla asks. "That" Sparks begins ominously "was the alarm for the gate activating." With that the room goes quiet. "Well, no time to lose!" Saint-14 exclaims and runs out of the room, with Raz-22 following on his heels, leaving the Vanguard dumbstruck.

Date Unknown

Location: Nessus Unstable Centaur

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd generation Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Captain of the SoF

Doctor Ellen Anders: Scientific Consultant.

Ander's POV

One day. I wasn't sure how long we'd be in the portal for really. It didn't look like a slip-space rupture and the readings showed it was anything but, yet I don't think I was expecting to make it from deep space to the 'Sol System' in just one day. About an hour after entering it became rather clear that the travel was going to take a while so the crew began to go about their daily tasks. The engineers fixing the last of the battle damage from that alien world, the marines running drills with the Spartans and I went to work analyzing both the salvage from the original alien world as well as the one from the portal planet. Most fascinating of all was a sort of drone from the portal world. It was about six feet tall and made of a grayish bronze alloy of unknown make. The limbs were rather spindly and had a fan shaped head with a singular red optic in the center. It would appear to be highly resistant to energy weaponry and the kinetics we use at the UNSC. In short, it would take nothing short of a platoon of marines to take it down. That is if it didn't have a glaring weak spot in a core filled with some kind of milky white liquid, based roughly center mass. Lastly I was not expecting the drone to reactivate after we got through the portal. It just sat up and stared at me for a good five seconds. Then it began to raise its arm at me, only to notice that the end of the limb had been removed and happened to be in my hands.

SCREEEE (my best thoughts on the vex screech noise)

It began screaming and charged me before I shot it center mass with its own gun. Luckily I'd figured that one out pretty quickly. As I warily watched the twitching remains I hoped that nothing else had happened when we got here. As the ship shuddered I knew we weren't that lucky.


	3. Chapter 3

Date Unknown

Location: Nessus Unstable Centaur

Persons of interest

Captain James Cutter: Cpt of the SoF

Cutter POV

'That went to hell quickly.' I thought to myself as the bridge rocked from another explosion. As soon as we exited the portal we found ourselves in a near mirror of the other side with a few minor differences. Firstly, despite being in the middle of the planet we were in zero gravity. This allowed what appeared to be an artificial field of asteroids and debris to float around the portal. Debris that almost immediately had dozens of strange turrets (Vex Cyclops) appear on them and begin to bombard the Spirit. Thankfully there was already an opening for the Spirit to exit the planet from, an exit we were heading for at full speed.

BANG

"We've lost deck gun #3!" Shouted one of the bridge crew. "Compensate with AA guns 2, 5 and 7! And fire an archer strike on the turrets 5 seconds before we clear the exit!" I bark at the crew. 'We're so close to success, I'll be damned if we fall after coming this far.' I think to myself. With only a slight scrape to the starboard hull we burst through the exit, with alien turrets exploding behind us. Only to come face to face with the belly of a beast.

03/05/4522

Location: Low Nessus Orbit- Leviathan debris field (the place where the leviathan is starting to eat Nessus)

Persons of interest

The Guardian: Human Dawnblade Warlock. Full Coromont Blade armor except for sunbracers gauntlets.

Weapons: Primary-Monte Carlo / Energy-Gallant Charge / Heavy-Roar of the Bear /

Jumpship: Saint's Invocation

Cogito: Ghost- Plasma Shell

Emperor Calus: Exiled ruler of the cabal

POV The Guardian

I was shocked and after all I've been through, it takes a lot to shock me. But receiving footage from the Vanguard of a giant, undoubtedly HUMAN warship bursting through the gate and laying waste to the vex did the trick. Still, despite the carnage they were dishing out, it wouldn't last. I could see fully well that this ship was already damaged. Not only that, it didn't appear to have shields active. Whether this meant that they were damaged beyond use or just not there in the first place was beyond me but that didn't stop the more pressing issue. They were trying to leave the Nessus Core. This was a good thing on one level, it meant that the Vex wouldn't destroy them for trespassing. On the other hand, there was only one way out of the core that would work for a ship that big… and it lead right into the Leviathan's mouth. Oh they could escape that, the ship looked like it'd have no trouble escaping the mouth. But that ship popping up would not escape Calus' gaze and since it wasn't running Guardian IFF that meant Calus would either order it shot down or… captured… studied… I couldn't let that happen.

As such I shot forward as I pushed my jumpship's engines to the limit. I cut it close but as I weaved between the debris of Nessus, I found myself sitting between the human vessel and the dozens of Loyalist dropships approaching it. "Cogito, start blasting messages at the Leviathan, let the Emperor know that I need to speak with him." I say confidently watching the Loyalist dropships hesitate as I make my presence known. "Sure thing Guardian, but what if he doesn't listen?" my Ghost says hesitantly. "We'll deal with that problem when we get to it, any response?" I ask patiently. "Nothing ye… WAIT we're getting something, coming across on the same channel as the last few times he invited us aboard!" Exclaims Cogito. "Put him through." I say tensely. _"Ah, my favorite light-bearer! I see that this vessel has caught your eye as well! Still… from the way things look I'd almost say you didn't want to share." _The Emperor says accusingly. "It certainly has your Grace," I manage to choke out "still I would like the privilege of dealing with this personally, in exchange I have found some knowledge on those runes from the Crown of Sorrow, would you perhaps be interested in an exchange?" I ask cautiously. This was the moment of truth. That research was hardly complete, but there was no doubt that if a second Ghalran was made as a result, Calus wouldn't be able to remove it on his own. He needed us to deal with issues of that nature. The connection remains silent, perhaps for a bit longer than I was comfortable with before suddenly the line erupts with laughter. _"HAH HAH HAH" _Calus laughs uproariously, _"you certainly know how to bargain Guardian! I agree! However, are you certain you would not reconsider becoming my shadow of shadows? You need not answer now, I know you have much to do. Remember grow fat from strength!" _with his trademark quip and a repeated offer, the line goes dead and the loyalist ships pull off, returning to the Leviathan.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and slump forward. "Cogito, send Calus the rune research." I order. "Got it, sending Calus the unfinished almost definitely dangerous research… done." Cogito mutters. "ALL research involving the Hive is dangerous, if its hurting someone else though it's not as bad." I say triumphantly, having regained my spirit at the thought of another Ghalran rampaging through the Leviathan. "Regardless," I say as I turn my head towards the human ship to get a better look. "we have other matters to attend to." As I examine the ship I realize, while large, it isn't as big as I thought it was. Maybe half the size of Ghaul's command ship from the Red War. It is covered in scars, battle wounds new and old mar the surface. Despite this, proudly emblazoned on the side is the designation CFV-88 : UNSC Spirit of Fire. "Well then, Cogito, what do you say about going to meet our new friends?" I ask the little light. "They'd better not shoot us."


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi Author here, ALRIGHT! That's a lot of feedback here! Let's start small, Cogito, that's latin for 'I think' ironic considering it took me a good 2-3 hours to come up with that. Following that theme I'm naming the Guardian 'Custos' (literally just Latin for Guardian) since I realized that I can't just have everything/one referring to the Guardian as the Guardian. I just didn't want to do any of the cliché ghost names like Lux, lumos and all the other random words for light you can come up with (Yes I know I already used Sparks for Raz-22's ghost). With Anders and the Goblin, there is no deeper meaning in the Ves'x plans. The thing shut down without a higher ranking being to boss it around, only to reactivate when it entered a universe where there was higher ranking Vex around. As for the Spirit's size in reference to Ghaul's flagship, I figured it'd be a bit pathetic if the 'Dominus of the Red Legion' was flying around in something smaller than the spirit. I mean his rank's AT LEAST equivalent to a Sangheili Fleetmaster… and I don't think I've heard of any of those that don't have an assault carrier lying around for a flagship. As for the nano-machines… yes. Both times SIVA tried to kill Guardians it was being controlled by something, be it that Rasputin fragment or the Fallen. The tool is not evil, only the wielder, though Rasputin was in a bit of a weird place at the time. Besides, SIVA has far too much plot potential for me to just leave it rusting in the Plaguelands! Another thing, noting the AI issues. I going to have it so that while Destiny AI will not have a lifespan they are not immune to rampancy. I mean, look at Evil Failsafe! "I heard that." YEESH not now Evil Failsafe! Enough time alone or in bad conditions would break even the best Destiny AI, even Rasputin. I'm thinking it would be like good ole 343-Guilty Spark going nuts stuck on Installation 04. Lastly Cogito will NOT be needing to break into the SOF's systems… yet. When he was blasting the message at Calus he was doing it on every channel… and loud enough that a monkey with a tinfoil hat could pick it up. Everyone on the Spirit heard that. They might not have understood what half of it meant but they still got the message. SO now we have the first meetings… **

Dialogue Chart

"Person speaking"

|Ghost Speaking|

"_Alien speaking"_

{AI Speaking}

Adding [ ] before any of these means the being in question is thinking

'Something being referred to with air quotations'

Anything else

Date Unknown

Location Nessus Unstable Centaur

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd Gen Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Cpt of the SoF

Jerome-092

Alice-130

Douglas-042

No POV

Silent. The bridge, no, the entire ship was utterly silent. Upon picking up the signal blasting from that fighter, Serina immediately reported it to the Captain who told her to connect them to it. The result being the entire ship hearing the brief negotiations between an 'Emperor Calus' and what said Emperor called a 'Light-bearer.' While the rest of the bridge began to panic afterwards, recalling the one from the fighter bargaining for the right to 'Deal with them personally' Serina began using the ship to conduct a deep scan on both the fighter and their general surroundings, in hopes they might be able to contact some UNSC forces in the area. However, she was met with nothing, nothing but unknown signals. Not ONE UNSC OR UEG transmission, IN SOL! THE HOME SYSTEM! As she began to panic alongside the rest of the crew, the results of the fighter scan came back. The onboard systems noted an issue with the ships' atomic makeup, but that was shelved in favor of the report on its sole occupant, its human occupant. As such she composed herself and reported this discovery.

Cutter's POV

{Captain, I've taken the liberty of scanning the surrounding area and have a few things to report.} Serina blurted out, interrupting the bridge crew's frenzied discussions on whether or not to contact or blast the unknown. ["Finally, we need more info on how to deal with this."] I thought to myself. "What have you found Serina." I ask politely. {First off, there is only a single occupant aboard that fight, a human occupant I might add.} The AI informed them. A wave of tension seemed to evaporate from the bridge crew with that, the thought of making contact with an unknown alien race was weighing heavily on them. "And.." I lead, knowing that won't be all. {There appear to be… no UNSC or UEG signals in the area…} She said hesitantly. That was bad. No human signals in the home system could mean only a few things, all very bad. "Serina are you saying…" I begin to stammer.

"INCOMING TRANSMISSION, IT'S FROM THE FIGHTER!" Shouts one of the bridge crew suddenly. "Put it through!" I order, we would have to deal with the potential fate of humanity later, not to mention the potential source of information hovering several thousand meters in front of us. {Patching us through, hmm their transmission signal is rather bizzare, unlike before, I wouldn't even be able to notice it if it wasn't being directed at us.} Serina murmured.

"Hello," Then the voice from the fighter blared through the bridge intercom. Taking a moment to recompose myself I respond. "Greetings, I am Captain James Cutter of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, might I know who I am speaking to?" There is a moment of silence on the other end before the unknown names itself, "My name is Custos and I am a Guardian of the Vanguard of the Last City." Guardian, Vanguard, Last City, all unknown terms, though the potential implications of 'The Last City' were massive. "Now, regardless of how nice it is to talk, I will be blunt and ask, are you human?" Custos asked. I see no reason not to reply, "Yes, we most certainly are. Though I must ask why it would not be obvious as well as why we are not receiving any UNSC signals despite being in the Sol System?" ["This is the moment of truth, whether or not this venture was worth it came down to Custos' response"] I think to myself. "I apologize, but I am unfamiliar with the terminology, what is the UNSC?" The supposed 'Guardian' asks in response. This puzzles the crew. It would be one thing to learn of the worst, to know that humanity had been all but annihilated and this Custos was one of the last survivors, but this? To not even now what the UNSC was in the first place? Something was wrong here. "Now, this is a rather forward request and I fully understand if you don't agree but I would like to dock my jump-ship with your vessel. You have travelled through a Vex Gateway, to our knowledge, without necessary protective measures. I have an AI on my person that could confirm if the Vex have formed any intrusions on your ship, be they digital or physical." The Light-bearer offered. ["Absolutely not'] Was my first thought. To allow an AI of unknown origin to tamper with the Spirit's systems was not something any sane Captain would allow. Just as I was about to order the ship shot down I was interrupted.

"Captain, I believe we should accept." Over the intercom came the voice of Jerome-092


	5. Chapter 5

Dialogue Chart

"Person speaking"

|Ghost Speaking|

"_Alien speaking"_

{AI Speaking}

Adding [ ] before any of these means the being in question is thinking

'Something being referred to with air quotations'

Anything else

Date Unknown

Location Nessus Unstable Centaur

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd Gen Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Cpt of the SoF

Jerome-092

Alice-130

Douglas-042

Dr. Ellen Anders

Custos (The Guardian, same loadout as before)

Cogito (Custos' Ghost)

Cutter's POV

I blinked, in shock, not that someone thought to agree, but that a Spartan was the one doing so. "We are stranded dealing with too many unknowns to turn down a potential source of information, what we've found either points to us having lost the war or being in a as of yet unknown situation. As such as this person has yet to display hostile intent we should attempt to coax more info out of him and if he does have hostile intent, I suggest that Red Team be the group to greet him when he docks." Explained Jerome before I asked myself. I pondered this for a moment. His suggestion had merit. A Spartan Fireteam could bring down just about any opponent. Not to mention this person said that he was a part of the Vanguard, Vanguard. It was possible that this was some form of scout regiment, like ONI's prowler core. Such individuals, while talented, would not excel in ground combat. That left one problem. "Serina, have you detected any potential cyber-attacks from the 'jump-ship?'" I ask seriously. {None so far, but there is definitely an AI in there, any attempts I myself have made have been repelled handily.} The AI reports, obviously miffed she couldn't break their firewalls.

"Very well, Jerome, I approve. Red Team, along with two ODST teams will be reporting to hanger 2 to receive our guest I will be greeting them myself." I announce. Red Team sends green lights as acknowledgment. "Serina inform our guest that we will be opening hanger 2 for them to enter and provide a flight plan. If they deviate they are to be shot down, make that clear to them" {Aye aye.} Captain, she says.

Custos' POV

I was starting to sweat a bit. It had been a good 10 minutes since I'd made the offer and I'd gotten nothing but radio silence. Thankfully, I suppose cooler heads prevailed on their end when they sent me a flight plan and some stipulations. Do not deviate or be shot down, no weapons for our meeting, yet pretty standard. Considering their lack of reaction to the whole Guardian deal I don't think they realized I was a living weapon though. As such I prepared to meet them by ditching my weapons. "And you were worried we'd be shot at." I mockingly accuse my ghost. |Still am, but death by burning light is far more painful than the bullets anyways.| Cogito says. "See you were worried about them not me!" I say triumphantly. |Just be careful, we are heading into a complete unknown.| The Ghost says. "I will, now, let's go meet our unknowns!" I say excitedly as our ship pulls into their hangar.

Location: SoF Hanger Bay #2

Douglas-042 POV

Weird, the unknown looked very weird. As it teleported, TELEPORTED off it its ship, that was ,y first though on its appearance. It was wearing a dull brown metal and leather looking robe, largely armored shin guards, its helmet was a slightly darker color and had no visible visor, yet its gauntlets were the strangest part. There were on fire, or had some form of contained plasma in a field wrapped around them. Either way it was an unknown, I would be cautious. Finally, what appeared to be a small optic drone hovered appeared next to the unknown. It had a brilliant blue plasma field around it. The appearance was similar to an elites energy shield yet… overcharged. That would be a priority target if things went south. If it was an optic drone, then the unknown would be blinded. While I was further deliberating, the unknown raised his hands to his head and tapped what appeared to be a few buttons and his helmet disappeared. What was left was a rather unassuming middle aged male, dark blonde hair and brown eyes on a bone pale face. He was in that armor a lot. I would know, all Spartans were pale like that too…

It was a rather neat trick, teleport your armor on and off. Not that surprising though, if you could teleport a person armor should be relatively simple… as would weapons. I further heightened my guard. From the way Jerome and Alice shifted uncomfortably I knew they had come to the same conclusion. Regardless of the risk, the Captain strode forward confidently and held out his hand. The unknown smiled and returned the gesture.

"Well, allow me to reintroduce myself, I am Custos." The unknown… the human said smiling. The captain smiled back "And I am Captain James Cutter, welcome aboard the Spirit of Fire. Now I hate to get to business straight off but I believe you said something about a potential 'Vex' incursion aboard my ship." The Captain said straightforwardly. "Ah yes, now allow my to introduce Cogito, my partner." Custos said as he offhandedly pointed towards the optic drone. |A pleasure to meet you Captain Cutter.| The not drone said, surprising many of the ODSTs members. My eyes narrowed, raising the priority level of the now identified AI platform in my mind. The small drone, barely the size of an apple, appeared to have excellent anti-gravity engines in it, an energy shield, if the readings were correct and above all else was an AI. ONI would kill for an infiltrator like that. |Now you travelled through an unknown Vex gateway to arrive here, unfortunately as it isn't mapped we aren't entirely sure where you came from or anything the Vex had for security protocols in it. Considering you're still flying the ship on your own they likely didn't use any cyberwarfare against you… not sure why. That leaves physical intrusion. Did you happen to recover any artefacts from the Vex Gate on the end you entered?|

I immediately thought back to the drone Anders insisted we recovered. It had activated and tried to kill her on arrival… I hope that it didn't do anything. "Yes, we did. It was a roughly six feet tall, drone. Bronze colored alloy and a fan shaped head." The Captain explained. With that Custos tensed. "Did it have a disproportionately sized head compared to the body?" He quickly asked. "Yes, it did. Why?" Cutter responded. With that the Guardian briefly relaxed before tensing again, as if remembering something. If he was going to say something, the AI beat him to it. |The Vex take information security very seriously. If it is broken then I suggest you dispose of it. Vex all carry beacons that activate upon their unit's deactivation. The signal is used to triangulate of its location and recover any salvageable tech. In other words it allows other Vex to teleport to the location of their fallen comrade.| The silence was deafening. |Thankfully the description of the unit you gave matches that of a Goblin, a bottom tier unit. As such the most powerful unit they would send to recover it is a Minotaur… which you don't know what is.| The Ghost says in response to the blank stares. Still a threat is a threat and the Captain responded in kind. "Serina, what did we do with the remains of the… 'Goblin'?" He asks sternly. {It was sent down to the trash compactor after Professor Anders discovered it fried its circuits on destruction.} Serina informed, while feeling smug over the Custos' shocked reaction to her presence. "Not good enough, send a marine squad down there to grab the remains, then shoot them out of an airlock." Ordered the Cpt. {There is already a squad almost there, they were going to destroy some munitions that had gone sour. We should get a response any second.} She said in return.

Almost as soon as she said this, all of the ODSTs radios began to crackle. "UNKNOWN CONTACTS! DAMN, THEY'VE TAKEN THE ENTIRE LEVEL!" screams came in over the radio, belaying the unfortunate squad's fate. With that Cutter sprang into action. "Red Team get down there on the double!" he barked quickly. However, as Red Team was about to go off, they were interrupted by their guest. "Captain Cutter, I understand you have faith in your men but the Vex are an unknown to you. I would like to accompany your people to drive them back. In addition, I will provide all of my knowledge on Vex combat to you AI for distribution among your crew." Custos offered. It was a good offer, any knowledge on what they would face would be useful. "I accept, I'll for now, you're a VIP. That means you're with Red Team, they'll lead you to the disposal level. Now then, get me back my ship."


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi, Author here. I guess I need to re-address a few issues. Ghaul's command ship, The Immortal, in cannon is 662 meters long. In this AU it was 5 kilometers long. I'm doing this due to the fact it would leave the space rhino commander flying around in something just BARELY bigger than a Paris-Class Frigate. Which is pathetic considering the Cabal also have the Leviathan chilling at Nessus. So, the SoF is still 2.5 kilometers for those who thought I shrunk it. If you have any questions or suggestions I'm glad to hear them! Except the shipping, there will be no shipping here no thank you. **

Date Unknown

Location UNSC Spirit of Fire, waste processing deck

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd Gen Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Cpt of the SoF

Jerome-092

Alice-130

Douglas-042

Dr. Ellen Anders

Custos (The Guardian, same loadout as before)

Dawnblade Warlock. Full Coromont Blade armor except for Sunbracers gauntlets.

Weapons: Primary-Monte Carlo / Energy-Gallant Charge / Heavy-Roar of the Bear /

Cogito (Custos' Ghost)

Custos' POV

As we walked silently towards our objective, Cogito had pointed out several things of concern. As to not provoke them, I'd asked my ghost not to try and hack their ship in any way, but that didn't stop him from taking passive scans, the results were… concerning. This Red Team, at least a special forces group from what I gathered, had severely underpowered weaponry. The only passable weapon was on the leader, an oversized laser, and it would only barely be able to 1-hit a minotaur. By minotaur I mean a standard model **(red health bar)** and not one of the many upgraded models. The others held a chain-gun and a rocket launcher respectively. This wouldn't do. They would win most likely, but it would take long enough for the Vex to realize where exactly they were and prep a more… robust recovery squad. ["Well then… I guess I'm giving out freebees, since I doubt I'll get these back."] I think to myself, pained at what I was about to do. Thankfully the Captain had given me the names of those I was working with, well, more designations than names but it was enough.

"Spartan-092… right?" I address their leader. "Sir," he addresses me. He must be taking the VIP thing seriously. "Now, not to belittle you but I don't believe your weapons are rated for fighting Vex, you've seen my ships transmat capabilities, with your permission I would like to teleport several weapons for myself and your squad here, to this location." I asked politely, no sense it not being polite to the guy who looked like he'd win an arm wrestling match with Lord Shaax. He seemed to deliberate for a moment before nodding in approval. Good, thankfully I had weapons that would work for their fighting styles, based off of their armament anyways. First was 092.

Jerome's POV

I watched Custos hold out his hand and with a flash of light a long, hi-tech looking weapon appeared in his hand. It was a strange metallic gray, with what appeared to be a gas canister of sorts attached to the back. It had what initially looked like an ammo clip in a downwards configuration as well as a light green digital sight on top of the barrel. Before I had a chance to examine it further, he handed it to me as well as several clips. "I noticed your laser cannon there so I figured the Sleeper Simulant would be a good fit. It's a linear fusion rifle, though it behaves much like a laser. There are 4 shots a mag and it takes about 1.24 seconds to charge a shot." Custos explained briefly as we walked. If what he said was true, so long as the impact was comparable, this was a reusable Spartan Lazer. Not to mention he identified my weapon without any prior knowledge on it. Next up, with a flash of light, something I knew Alice would very much appreciate fell into his hands.

Alice's POV

I'm in love, I thought to myself as I saw that work of art fall into his hands. It was a chain-gun, much like my own yet much more compact, I could probably hold two of them if I put in this effort, but something in my gut told me, this was something good. It was matte black with a silver barrels as well as a few features I couldn't identify. The guy handing out presents appeared to think about something before clipping some form of add on to the side and handed the beaute to me. "This is the Sweet Buisiness. 900 rpm – can hold 150 rounds a mag. However the add on I just clipped on is a micro transmat beacon. It'll directly send rounds from my ship into the gun. That'll boost your max shot to 300. Granted it could fire more, you have for all intents and purposes unlimited ammo, but it would melt the barrels, so try not to do that." He explains. This was going to be fun, still that leaves one more as I turn back, just in time to see a massive rocket launcher appear.

Douglas POV

"This is the Truth," the Guardian begins. I listen intently, with a rocket launcher that big I'd be doing a lot of damage. "it fires rockets that possess full homing capabilities and well as a black radius of about 10 feet, so be careful for friendly fire." He says as he hands me the weapon. As soon as he does several purple blocks appear in his hands. "These are your ammo blocks. Place them in the slot on the side and it'll fabricate a new rocket for you in the barrel." As he hands them over I begin to think of the advantages this kind of tech could offer. Before I could fully appreciate the capabilities of my new toy, we finally encounter the Vex.

No POV

As the group of four enters the room, there is a brief moment where nothing happens, a calm before the storm. The Vex stare at them, noting the presence of the organic that had destroyed many critical minds throughout the system, as well as 3 unknowns. After the microsecond it takes them to process this, they raise their rifles to fire, only to be cut down with ruthless force.

While the Spartans think to the information that Custos had provided on Vex capabilities. The Guardian lunges forward bringing Monte-Carlo to bear and tearing through the closest Vex, a Harpy and shoots it through the optic. It was as he had expected, the Vex hadn't sent any units above normal grade. He swaps for his fusion rifle only to blink in confusion as it, along with any unit behind it is disintegrated. Red Team had leapt into the fray. They dance throughout the battlefield. Any shot coming their way is dodged, never taking a hit, they cut down their foes with relentless precision. ["Individually, they are very formidable", the Warlock ponders, "but together they are unstoppable."]

Meanwhile on their private voice channel, the Spartans share their opinions on the Warlock. "Looks like our prediction on him not being too capable were wrong." Douglas comments, watching the Guardian use his rifle's bayonet to stab through a large unit, a 'Minotaur', he mentally corrected himself. Before using its shattered husk as a shield and atomizing a group of 3 'Goblins' with his energy rifle. "He fights recklessly, like either he doesn't think he'll die, or doesn't care." Alice adds her bit as well, watching as the Guardian is nearly killed by a Hobgoblin's line rifle. "Regardless we will need to be prepared if he turns out hostile, if he decided to sacrifice himself to take someone down, we would need to be ready to stop him. Douglas reminds his team. "Agreed, but I don't think he'll turn out hostile, why arm someone you plan on fighting." Douglas says, emphasizing the point by firing a rocket into a cluster of 'Goblins'

After about an hour of Vex breaking carnage…

"SCHREEE!" is the last sound the headless Minotaur makes as Douglas punches its core. As it falls to the floor, the fight ends. "Well, that was fun." Alice says, hefting her new gun on her shoulder. {I would be lying if I said that wasn't very entertaining.} Serina suddenly announces over the intercom. {Regardless, I do believe our Guest informed us that there are beacons on the Vex, and there are a lot more bodies now than there were before…} she intones ominously. "We have roughly 5 minutes to deal with them." The guardian says. "You heard him Red Team, get these things in the airlock, on the double!" Jerome immediately orders. It was close but they manage to get all the wreckage out the airlock with about 30 seconds to spare. With a crisis averted, we once again are left with both sides staring at each other, not quite sure what to do. However, where before there was only suspicion, there is now mutual respect in the eyes of both sides.

**Author again! I figured that before people start saying stuff about how I've messed up weapon stats. First off, I will be abusing transmat tech. It's way too convenient and fixes so many videogame mechanics that I can't ignore it. Like how Cabal colossus have unlimited ammo machineguns as well as unlimited micro missiles. Scorn Chieftain summoning ether torches? Transmat. Plus, The Spartans don't have Ghosts to give them fresh ammo so I'd need stopgap measures. With Jerome, I could just give him a ton of clips. With Alice, an infinite ammo auto rifle and for Douglas I had to get creative. I think that if a Ghost can make ammo synths I could make a power synth that exclusively makes ammo for a single weapon. If you have any questions feel free to ask!**


	7. Chapter 7

Dialogue Chart

"Person speaking"

|Ghost Speaking|

"_Alien speaking"_

{AI Speaking}

Adding [ ] before any of these means the being in question is thinking

'Something being referred to with air quotations'

Anything else

Date 03/05/4522

Location: Subspace en-route to Nessus

Persons of interest

Saint-14: Legendary Titan

Paean: St-14's Ghost

Raz-22: Nightstalker Hunter

Sparks: Raz's Ghost

No POV

"I don't like this." Raz complained over the coms. "What's not to like my friend? Sure, we were a bit hasty leaving but those pictures your Ghost got of that ship were quite impressive indeed!" The old Titan rebukes. "You say that like they're some colonists that got REALLY lost during the collapse. As much as I'd like for them to be new allies I would also like to not be blown to bits by the giant warship." Raz says defiantly. "Relax, The Guardian should be there already, if they haven't been destroyed by the Vex or the Space Turtles then we should be fine. If they are hostile, the Guardian will take care of them!" Saint declares confidently. "Ha! I would be lying if I said your enthusiasm wasn't infectious. So then lets hope for the best! We should be there any moment anyways." Raz declares.

With that there is a burst of light and both jump-ships drop out of subspace, about a kilometer away from the thankfully intact unknown warship. Both Guardians sit in awe for a moment, before Raz breaks the silence, "I want one!" the hunter declares. "Think of how much it would help the people if we had one of these. We could defend an entire section of the wall with only one! Freeing Guardians to head out into the system and reclaim lost wonders from the Golden Age." St-14 murmurs to himself, imagining all the possibilities such a ship could present. "I know it's awesome St, but it isn't like we don't have any ships. We've stolen plenty of Ketches and the occasional Cabal Cruiser over the years. We're even working on restoring the House of Exiles Ketch on the moon." Raz points out. "I am aware of the city's projects my friend, just because I was gone for some time doesn't mean that I haven't taken it upon myself to learn of all that I missed. This is different from those stolen vessels. It is not Cabal, not Fallen, this ship is HUMAN. That alone would be a powerful symbol for the people." The titan explains. "Well, when you put it like that… I still want one." Raz replies. "HAHAHA! It is good to know that Hunters have not changed, still it is not good having one of the Vanguard positions open. I believe I will recommend you, if you desire it of course?" St-14 offers. "WHAT! NO WAY! I am not doing that! Find Shiro-4! He was supposed to be Cayde's replacement!" The hunter vehemently rejects.

As the hunter continued to deny the Vanguard position, Sparks decided it was time to pipe up. |Hey guys, as much as I would like to continue tormenting Raz like this, we just received a message from the ship.| There was a moment of silence before St-14 broke it "Well go on then! No need to drag out the suspense." The Titan complained. |Very well, it says that they are expecting our arrival, not us specifically but some other Guardians. It also gave us a flight plan to one of their hangars, where Custos is apparently already docked.| Sparks explained. "Well, looks like there was nothing to worry about after all." St-14 said smugly, Raz could almost feel the Exo Titan's gaze burning into him through the hull of his ship. "Fine, you were right, Custos had it handled. Now then, time to meet our new friends." Raz-22 says confidently as both of their ships pull up to the hangar.

Date 03/05/4522

Location: UNSC Spirit of Fire, Bridge.

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd Gen Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Cpt of the SoF

Custos: Dawnblade Warlock

Cogito: Custos' Ghost

30 minutes before the arrival of St-14 and Raz-22

Custos' POV

["That went better than I thought it would"] I pondered to myself. After finishing the disposal of the Vex, Captain Cutter had invited me to the bridge. I was disarmed of course, not that it really mattered to a Guardian. Interestingly enough, they also asked that I removed my Sunbracers. I believe that when they saw me use a melee ability they had interpreted it as my gauntlet's work, not mine. I also removed my helmet, it would help for negotiations if they were looking at a friendly face rather than a helmet, at least I hoped it would. Regardless, this was going to be an interesting conversation, I thought to myself as I walked onto the bridge.

The captain immediately walked up to me and extended his hand. "Custos, I had my doubts but you have my utmost gratitude for your assistance in the defense of my ship and her crew." Cpt. Cutter said upright. "I'm glad I could help Captain, any Guardian would gladly help people in distress. However that is not entirely why I am here. As you would imagine, having a warship of an unknown faction appear in our home system has the Vanguard spooked. I need to know why you're here." I ask the Captain in an authoritative tone. There is a bit of hesitation in the Captain's visage, before he immediately hardens his stance and says, "My ship, the Spirit of Fire last pursued a Covenant ship in hopes to deny a critical asset to our enemies. In order to accomplish this we were forced to sacrifice our slip-space drive, our FTL engine. As such, to return to our space, we were forced to use our sub light engines. We have been adrift for nearly 10 years, since the year 2531." The Captain would have likely continued explaining, if not for the startled grunt/random noise I was unable to suppress. The Captain looked at me with a slightly confused and concerned look. He realized that I had been shocked by his presumed timeframe. "I presume that you used the Vex gate after discovering where it led, in hope of rejoining humanity?" I ask, just for confirmation. "That is correct, now, what was that?" The Captain asks in a commanding tone. Seeing no way around this I clear my throat, "As of today, the date is March 5th 4522." I declare. The entire bridge crew freezes

"We don't understand the underlying principles that allow them the function, but it has long since been proven that certain Vex gates possess the ability to allow their users… to time travel." I say cautiously. This would mean to them that everyone they've ever known is dead, I'd need to deal with this carefully. "That in no way means that you are stuck. You can always travel back through the gate and you will most likely and up where you came from, however I would like to make a request of you before you go." I say in both an attempt to calm them and sate my own curiosity. Looking significantly relieved, the Captain responds asking, "What do you need?" Rather blunt, but that was good. "I would like to have access to your historical database and star charts, if you don't mind." I ask, trying (and likely failing) to hide my immense excitement. Captain Cutter looks slightly confused at my request. I think he was expecting me to ask for military hardware. Regardless he doesn't look like he will refuse. "That is agreeable, Serina, I would like you to work with Cogito on the date exchange." He asks their resident AI. {Alright Captain, however can we have their historical data as well? You don't get the opportunity to see the future every day sir.} She replies cheekily. I don't blame her, if I could reliably hack a Vex database without changing the future in the process I would want that kind of knowledge as well. I continue chatting with the Captain as well as some of the bridge crew, discussing the possibility of re-arming and fueling the Spirit as well as giving them a new FTL drive to make their trip back through the gate easier, when both Serina and Custos announce some confusing news.

{Captain!}  
|Custos!|

""What is it!"" Both the Captain and myself reply simultaneously. {Captain, there are many points where are histories do not align, I was chalking it up to what appears to be an utter collapse of human civilization doing wonders for their records, however their star charts are the real issue.} Serina declares. "What issue…" The Captain growls, looking at me. I was very confused, star charts are the most basic thing in the books. Even a few thousand year difference would only cause some drift on a galactic scale. {I confirmed it with our own sensors, Epsilon Eridani… Reach's star isn't there! At all!} The Spirit's AI declared. With that the bridge dissolved into chaos. "REACH IS GONE!" 'WE'RE TOAST!" "DID THE COVENANT BLOW UP A STAR!" Many such arguments flew through the air until "QUIET!" The Captain screamed. He looked like he had aged a decade or two with that statement. "Is that all Serina?" he asked quietly. {No sir, there are many similar occurrences. There is no Arcadia. Harvest's star is still in place but according to the readings the planet itself is not present. To top it all off there are dozens of stars that don't even exist on record, all floating in places where there were none before.} The Ship AI stated. "What are you saying, Serina?" The Captain asked, even I was intrigued, that AI was leading up to something, I could tell. {Captain, I don't think that this is our Sol System, I don't even think we're in our own universe.} The AI confidently declared. In but a few moments, the bridge once again descended into chaos.

"QUIET! ALL OF YOU!" Cogito popped out of no-where and screamed. "Cogito, I sternly begin, do you and Serina have any definite proof of this? You know what it would mean if you're both right." I say quietly. As a supporter of Dead Orbit, this represented a massive chance, not that anyone on the bridge save for Cogito knew what I mean by that. |I took a scan of the molecular structure of their walls and found that their electrons are moving wrong.| Cogito declared proudly. The bridge crew looked like they were about to draw their sidearm and shoot him before he got to the electron part, then they looked slightly curious, I was too. |To skip the tech jargon, let's say for reference all of the atoms in our universe orbit clockwise. The atoms I scanned in the ship however, all orbit with a clockwise northward inflection!| Cogito explains proudly, unaware of the totally clueless looks he was getting from the bridge crew. I rub my forehead a bit and ask for confirmation "So they're from an alternate universe?" |Yes!| says my Ghost.


	8. Chapter 8

Dialogue Chart

"Person speaking"

|Ghost Speaking|

"_Alien speaking"_

{AI Speaking}

Adding [ ] before any of these means the being in question is thinking

'Something being referred to with air quotations'

Anything else

Date 03/05/4522

Location: UNSC Spirit of Fire – Alternate Sol System

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd Gen Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Cpt of the SoF

Dr. Ellen Anders: Scientific Consultant

Jerome-092

Ander's POV

This was all so fascinating! Two more of those 'jump-ships' had popped out in front of the Spirit. When they had been confirmed to be allies of our guest, the Captain had sent him down to welcome them, along with the Spartans. The Captain seems to be trusting him and I'm inclined to agree, but we can't be too careful. Still, I had to get the Captain on board with some of the ideas I've had over the past few minutes examining their historical data. As such I make a call up to the bridge.

"Captain, we need to ally with these people." I say bluntly, ignoring the Captain's raised eyebrow. "Why is that Doctor Anders?" He leads. "I've been reading over their historical files and from that alone I believe that they are far more advanced than the UNSC. It says that they had fully terraformed Mars, Venus and Mercury at the height of their power, some of the Jovian moons as well as Titan and by 'terraform, I mean fully breathable atmospheres! Capable of sustaining plant life as well!" I say excitedly. "There's mentions of small scale artificial gravity tech, superluminal communicators, programmable matter…" I realize I'm rambling but I can't help it. Any one of these breakthroughs could help us close the gap with the Covenant. "I understand Doctor, but we need to be able to win against the Covenant, not bolster our economy." The Captain says dejectedly. "They have energy weapons AND shields!" I say confidently." With that the Captain stopped to ponder this new info. "How did you find out." Cutter asks. "Their jump-ships, all of them had minor fluctuations similar to that of covenant shielding. Not to mention it's mentioned several times in their historical database." Serina helpfully chimes in. That settles it for the Captain and he brings the bridge into the discussion. As we all deliberate over what we would be willing to offer, we receive a call from Jerome.

Cutter's POV

"Captain, Custos has an idea for our FTL problems." Jerome says. "Well then let's hear it." The I say. With that Custos appears onscreen. "Hello Captain, to summarize, if all three of our jump-ships dock at certain points on the hull, they can tow the Spirit through FTL, this isn't sustainable, but it should be enough to get us back to The City." This plan had merit, the Spirit needed a resupply desperately and the could discuss the possibility of an alliance with their politicians. "I accept, you may begin with your docking immediately." I agree to the maneuver. The sooner we get out of hostile territory the better. Custos signs off and I see through the deck cameras that their ships position themselves with one on the ships underbelly and one on each of the port and starboard wings. Suddenly, a brief sense of vertigo envelops all the crewmembers and the ship blinks out of reality. Seeing the strange swirl of colors outside the ship, one of the marines decides to state the obvious. "This isn't slip-space!" "Thank you for that Jenkins." I say dryly. The marine has the decency to look mildly embarrassed. {Captain, due to the large weight of our vessel compared to their own, Cogito informs me it will take around ten minutes to reach the Last City.} Serina quickly informs me. Good that would give us some time to deliberate. Though the Captain did have a few questions about the two new figures he had seen on the monitor behind Custos. One of them had been veritable mountain larger than even the Spartans. He had ornate armor and what appeared to be a Roman Centurion's helmet with a metallic plume where there would normally be feathers. The second figure was considerably smaller. He wore a dark cloak and had several blue optics glaring on his helmet. he reckoned that they were a shock trooper and some kind of scout respectively. That led to the question of what Custos was supposed to be though, robes couldn't be practical in combat. That can wait for later, I think to myself. "Now Doctor Anders, I believe you were talking about their advanced tech." I begin. "Of course Captain, but there are a few key points we need to cover before any negotiations, first of which are the EXOs." Anders begins.

Date 03/05/4522

Location: UNSC Spirit of Fire – Alternate Sol System

Persons of interest

Custos: Dawnblade Warlock

Cogito: Custos' Ghost

Saint-14: Legendary Titan

Paean: St-14's Ghost

Raz-22: Nightstalker Hunter

Sparks: Raz's Ghost

No POV

"Cogito, you have this channel secured right?" Custos asks quietly. |Yes, they don't appear to have light based communications but I have a multi-layered encryption running just in case.| "Perfect, now we can talk freely! What do you think of these new people my friend?" St-14 asks boisterously over the coms. "Yeah, they seem kinda drab though. Still, did you see that tank! We NEED some of those tanks!" Raz says excitedly over the radio. "They're paranoid, but the fact that we're human helps." Custos says. "Cogito, you know the most about them due to the info exchange, what can you tell us?" the Dawnblade asks his ghost. |They represent the United Earth Government as the UNSC, or the United Nations Space Command. They are currently at war with a coalition of alien races called the Covenant. They made first contact with these aliens at a colony world named Harvest roughly 16 years ago. The Covenant had burnt the world and melted its surface to glass. They received one message from their enemy| "Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument." A raspy, cold voice suddenly played over the coms, eliciting a shudder from all those present. |Ever since they have been barely able to fight them. Any world discovered by the Covenant is doomed to fall. Often times reinforcements are too late due to their slow FTL travel speeds. Not to mention it takes them a 3 to 1 advantage at best and a 5 to 1 advantage at worst for their warships to take down enemy equivalents, according to their knowledge, the Covenant outnumbers them at least 10 to 1.|

With Cogito saying this, the Guardians are silent.

"#$%& * $%!" St-14 swears violently before disconnecting. |Apologies, I'll reconnect him when he calms down.| Paean says gently. Shocking all the other Guardians. Paean was a gentle ghost and didn't speak often. She had become even quieter as of late since she had managed to find mission transcripts from Custos' mission to revive St-14. Even a Ghost wouldn't react well to seeing footage of her own corpse. |Ahem, regardless of the outburst, it seems like Saint agrees, we need to help these people.| Cogito says. |Not to mention they can help us. Cogito told me that they had over 900 colonies at the start of the war. 900! Think of how much they could give us in terms of resources!| Sparks digitally salivates at the thought of being the richest ghost ever. "I've already sent their historical database, among other things back to the city. Hopefully the Consensus and the Vanguard can come to an agreement on what to do." Custos says warily, knowing the politics that still plagued humanity, despite its humble state. |Agreed, now I'm sending a message to the Captain explaining we're going to be jumping directly into the atmosphere. This kind of ship popping up in Earth orbit would attract unwanted attention.| Cogito informs politely. "Yeah, might also wanna warn them about the giant ball the city worships." Raz jokes.

With that, the SoF shoots out of subspace. The Spirit's crew is confronted with a sight completely foreign to them and very familiar to the Guardians.

They saw the Traveller.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi Author here! Lots of feedback, I've decided to take some advice from some of it. First off I'll be doing longer chapters now, probably not going to immediately jump to 10K chapters but I'm going to try and make each chapter a little bit longer at least. The SoF WILL be getting a refit/repair/upgrade from the kind folks in the city, haven't decided exactly WHAT those upgrades will be yet but it'll happen. In the meantime, with the longer chapters, I'm thinking this first arc of the story will be the struggle to get the SoF back to the UNSC. I'm planning a strike or two in order to steal vex gate blueprints and gather materials needed to build new ones hint hint. To top it all off though will be a VANGUARD EXPEDITION, the first since the expediation to the moon that resulted in THE GREAT DISASTER. This is going to be epic. Still, before we can get to that excitement we need to set a premise for it. Now Cutter gets to be the one thing no Captain ever wants to be, a diplomat.**

Dialogue Chart

"Person speaking"

|Ghost Speaking|

"_Alien speaking"_

{AI Speaking}

Adding [ ] before any of these means the being in question is thinking

'Something being referred to with air quotations'

Anything else

Date 0/05/4522

Location: Alternate Earth- The Last City

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd Gen Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Cpt of the SoF

Doctor Ellen Anders: Scientific Consultant

Jerome-092

Alice-130

Douglas-042

Dr. Ander's POV

As I stood in my lab and looked out into the open air, I was dumbstruck. The City? Impressive, it was looked like it was comparable to certain megacities back in the UEG, nothing compared to the stuff on my version of Earth, but still something. The walls? THAT was something. They looked like they had to be hundreds of meters tall! However all of it paled in comparison to the… object floating above the city. If it were in pristine condition, it would've been a pale white orb, with silver lines cutting across the surface, it was not in pristine condition however. Cracks and entire sections looked to have fallen and broken off, exposing mysterious inner working I couldn't begin to fathom. Yet rather than fall to the ground and potentially crush countless civilians, the shards… orbited around their origin! Like electrons orbiting a nucleus they stubbornly refused to leave. As I sat and watched I realized that the shards were slowly lowering to the surface of the orb in some places, laying themselves down on the surface with utmost delicacy. ["It's repairing itself."] I thought in a moment of realization. I shuddered at the thought of what could damage something like that. The SoF's sensors did NOT like the orb, spitting impossible readings and unknown radiation signatures like crazy. Yet they all seemed to agree on one thing, the orb had an insane amount of energy in it. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down. ["We're not here for the mega orb of unspeakable power. We're here to talk with these people, get the ship fixed up and maybe a new FTL drive. Maybe a tech exchange… right. I need to tell the Captain what to expect."] With that I hit the intercom and said, "Serina, get me the Captain.

Cutter's POV

BEEP

The chime of an incoming message cut off my crew and my own deliberating on the giant object hovering above the city. Custos had notified me some time ago that he was going to go down to the City and arrange us a meeting with the Vanguard as well as the City Consensus. Serina, being quite the help, informed me that Anders had been studying the City leadership in preparation for this. "Doctor Anders, I've hear that you have some information that could be helpful for our upcoming meeting?" I ask, already knowing the answer. "Yes Captain, there are many individuals that could be important but I'm going to keep this brief. We don't know exactly how long it'll take them to prepare down there so we need to be ready." She says quickly. I agree, but hopefully there will be less politicking than I'd expect. Considering how small there population appeared to be, there might be less political insanity.

"Alright Captain, the most important group we'll be dealing with on military aspects is the Vanguard." Anders begins. "Vanguard… isn't that the group our guest said he belonged to?" I ask I return. "Yes sir, our initially assessment of them was only partially correct. There are three leaders in the Vanguard, one for each type of Guardian. We initially assumed them to be a scouting branch of their military, but that falls into the domain of the Hunters, which is only one division of the Vanguard." Anders explains. "How about the others, anything to be concerned about?" I ask, Custos was a formidable soldier. He managed to keep up with the Spartans the entire time while cleaning out the Vex. If all of them were like that it would be incredible.

"Actually there's a lot of things to be concerned about, but for now we need to focus on their leadership." The doctor advises. I ponder it a moment before approving, we could examine the minute details later. "The first is Commander Zavala, the Titan Vanguard." With that a hologram of a massive individual in heavy armor appears on the bridge. He easily looked like he could go into a slugging match with a Spartan, maybe not win but he'd hold his own. There was one issue though. "Serina I think the hologram is misaligned, his face is… blue." I say, slightly annoyed. {Apologies sir, but that hologram is working perfectly fine, it's just that Commander Zavala is blue.} Serina says in a rather jovial tone. That threw me for a loop, what could cause a person to dye themselves blue? "If you're thinking it's ink Captain, you're wrong. Apparently the Commander is an Awoken, a type of human subspecies that exists here. There's mention of what I interpret to be an incident with exotic radiation exposure to a colony ship that caused them. Moving on, he is considered to be a massive stickler to military discipline. Favoring fortified installations and heavy firepower to win engagements." As Anders explained what kind of person the Commander was, I began to find a form of appreciation for the hardened soldier. He appeared to have an exemplary service record as far as what we've been given says. That brought on another question though. "It says that he's been in service for over a thousand years." I say incredulously. {Also correct sir, Guardians, do not age. The oldest one in service is one Lord Saladin, records say he's been active for over 1500 years.} Serina curtly said. The bridge stared frazzled until a techie said, "DAMN, I wish I'd look that good at 1000!" I groaned a bit and asked "Moving on, what about the next two leaders?"

"Next up, we have the Warlock Vanguard. The Warlocks are apparently combat engineers/intellectuals among the Vanguard. Considering the shattered state of human civilization in this universe. Many wonders and important tech from their history have been lost. The Warlocks are tasked with travelling throughout the system and recovering said tech. The current Warlock Vanguard is one Ikora Rey." With that brief description a hologram of a bald, African American woman in red robes appeared. She looked calm and collected, with a glint in her eye that said she knew everything before you did. For some reason she reminded me of a slightly nicer ONI agent. "Anything else to add?" I ask, feeling that there was something more to this one. {One of her titles is 'Master of the Hidden,' she has her own information agent network spread throughout the system, a Vanguard ONI if you will. She would be Parangovsky, if only far, far less ruthless and evil.} Serina interjected. That one I'd be cautious about dealing with. If only on principle, she might not be an ONI spook but a spook's a spook. That left one more. "Alright Doctor, you mentioned the 'Hunters' earlier, what do you have on them?" I ask.

"Hunters are scouts and assassins. They roam the wilds, finding lost resources killing enemy leaders and disrupt supply chains. Unfortunately, the position of Hunter Vanguard is currently empty." Dr. Anders said. That was a bit of a shock. "I see, what happened?" I question. "The previous Hunter Vanguard was Cayde-6. He died in attempt to pacify a prison riot in The Prison of Elders in the Reef." Seeing my utterly confused expression, the doctor continued. {Long story short, this prison was pretty much a place where they locked up high ranking Elites, Brutes and Hunters… with the occasional Scarab thrown in for good measure.} Serina interjected in a snarky manner. The marines in the bridge shuddered at the description. A prison filled with only the beefiest and meanest aliens? That wasn't a place they'd want to be guarding.

"Cayde-6 was an Exo, which is quite pertinent so we don't get confused." With that a hologram of an android of some kind appeared onscreen. It had movable plated on its head to mimic expressions, color highlight and a blue horn for some reason. {Or jealous in my opinion. They are essentially Smart AI, however they have their own mobile platform and possess far more memories of the person they were patterned off of than UNSC S-AI. This does however lead to some issues. The shock of being in a metal body is too much for a human mind to comprehend so they often go into shock. To overcome this issue, they incorporated as many 'human' functions into their platforms as possible.} New holograms appeared of both male and female models of Exos. {Both male and female models were made. They can eat, drink and of course taste that food and drink like humans can. Despite being machines, they also included methods for… other desires.} Serina said looking mildly disgusted by the option. {Finally, all of this, while it helped, was not enough. As such, typically an Exo must be 'reset' a couple time by having their minds wiped, in order to fully adapt to their new body. The methods to produce them have been lost to time, and only the Ghosts, Guardian companion AI are advanced enough to understand their inner working and repair them. It is my opinion that Exo technology would be very useful to the UNSC. Even just using Exo based limbs as prosthetic limbs would be a massive leap over our current tech.} Serina finished.

That was a lot to process. Awoken, Exos, Hunters, Titans and Warlocks. Still, Dr. Anders said that the Vanguard was the most important in MILITARY matters. That still left civilian groups. "What about the civilian groups?" I ask, there is never only one civilian group. "Fortunately they are much more simple, shockingly. There are three groups of which only two are of consequence at the moment. They are Dead Orbit, the Future War Cult and the New Monarchy. The Monarchy has lost a significant amount power lately and won't be able to affect us in any large fashion. The FWC is essentially calling for a military run government. However Dead Orbit is essentially calling for the abandonment of Earth." Anders said in a conflicted tone. Based on the muttering from the bridge I knew that the crew didn't like the idea, even if this wasn't OUR Earth, the idea of abandoning Earth was abhorrent.

{It's a rather conflicting viewpoint. Most of the enemies of the city throughout the system are content to leave them here as long as they don't grow too big. As it stands, their enemies fight each other more than them. Yet the great fear is that their enemies, any one of them, DO possess the resources to destroy The City and with it, this humanity. They're just focused on other stuff or can't be bothered with eradicating the pathetic remnants of the natives to the system. Dead Orbit, preaches abandoning Earth, but not permanently. They need to leave in order to regain their strength and retake the Earth in force.} Serina explained the tenets behind Dead Orbit.

The bridge was quiet with contemplation after that. While abandoning Earth still seemed wrong, they could see that the people of the city had no-where to go. No-where to grow in this system. The second it looked like they were becoming a valid threat, their enemies would come down upon them and crush what they had left. A depressing fate. "Is that all you two?" I ask Serina and Anders. "One more Captain, an individual with extraordinary sway, but doesn't really use it. In fact, I'd say that both the Spartans and you have done an excellent job representing us to him!" Anders said proudly. "Custos?" I ask bewildered. He was the only person we had interaction with since our arrival. Was he someone important? {According to the records, he is one of the most decorated heroes of the Vanguard in history. A veteran of at least 32 official Strike operations, potentially more if unofficially and 10 Raids. For the record, based on their importance, Strike operations would be like assassinating a Sangheilii Fleet-Master. Raids would be like killing a king of a race.} Serina said, sounding mildly shocked. Even the Spartans, who had been quietly listening seemed somewhat impressed. "That's not all, most of, no, ALL of the alien factions The City is enemies with follows the same bizarre pattern for choosing leaders. The strongest, and smartest beings are in charge. It's be like if we elected a Spartan as president of the UEG or as a High-Admiral." Anders added somewhat warily. That tidbit got the Spartans as from their body language they looked rather disturbed. Whether it was from the notion of the beings Custos had been killing or the idea of a Spartan president was unknown.

{Alright Captain, this has been an enlightening discussion for all of us, but I have received a message from Custos. The City Consensus has come to an agreement about our situation. They will be helping us. However, they have sent coordinates for a meeting. Our talks with them will determine whether or not 'help' is a new FTL drive and a pat on the back or energy shields, weapons AND an FTL drive.} Serina listed the stakes. "Well, you heard her, prep a Pelican to take us to Serina's coordinates. Spartan Red Team, Professor Anders and myself will be going. Keep an ODST team prepped for hot drop aimed directly at the meeting site in case things go sour, not move it! Double time!" I bark orders at my crew, hoping that I'm making the right choice.

Location: The Tower- Vanguard Headquarters

Date: 03/05/4522

Persons of interest

Serina: 2nd Gen Smart AI

Captain James Cutter: Cpt of the SoF

Doctor Ellen Anders: Scientific Consultant

Jerome-092

Alice-130

Douglas-042

St-14: Legendary Titan

Raz-22: Nightstalker Hunter

Custos: Dawnblade Warlock

Cogito: Custos's Ghost

Jerome's POV

The subtle shaking of the Pelican as we land is almost imperceptible. Captain Cutter and Doctor Anders were silent throughout the short flight to 'The Tower' the Vanguards' headquarters. It was a rather peaceful looking place. It was however undergoing repairs, while the Captain had been discussing the influential figures of 'The City,' the Spartans had been discussing the abilities of the Guardians. According to all sources, the 'Ghosts' that accompanied them, made them functionally immortal. Not just in age, but in that if they were killed, the Ghosts had the ability to revive them, save for in extraordinary circumstances. It was either an utterly insane Media Campaign, make their defenders seem invincible to the inhabitants of this City, or it was true. If it was true, then if things turned sour, then the Spartans would have to fight their way out of an undying army to escape. Fun. On the other hand, reading about all the different festivities and the like that the Guardians participated in made a lot of sense, yet still itched at his nerves. It made sense in that, outside or relaxation, Guardians are almost always working on something, be it combat, running supplies to the many fronts they had decoding artifacts and more. On top of that they were immortal. In the personal profile of Commander Zavala for example, it said that the Commander had been the Titan Vanguard for hundreds of years. During that time, for a break, he would take one hour to eat a fine dinner and read a month. That last time he had taken more time off than that was a victory celebration for the Battle of Twilight Gap.

That level of dedication would cause even the most dedicated to utterly break down and that was without factoring in the immortality. Yet the Commander was apparently in perfect mental health. The only reason Vanguard members would change, is either the Vanguard retiring or with the death of the Vanguard leader. Even the 'retired' members, only step down from a command position. They often go right back out into the field and work to train new Guardians.

Whirrr

With a subtle groan the troop bay door of the pelican opened. As Alice, Douglas and myself stepped out of the Pelican we saw two Guardian's awaiting us. They were the two that had come to join Custos in 'investigating' us out at that centaur. The tall, armored Guardian stepped forward. "Hello my friends!" he said jovially with a rough, russian accent. He steps forward and claps me on the shoulder. I barely manage to suppress an instinctual body slam, that poor marine helped me learn the difference between a friendly pat and one with ill intent. "Come then, the Vanguard is waiting." He says, waving for us to follow. I send the green light for the Captain and Anders to follow. As we walk through the Tower, we see many Guardians stopping to stare at us. A few seem to start approaching us, only to be shooed off by the jovial Titan that was leading the way, with the Hunter bringing up the rear. We passed by several interesting characters along the way, there was a Titan wearing a helm with one horn, an Exo selling guns and more. Finally after what seemed like ages (but was more likely just a few minutes) we arrive before a large room overlooking the outside of the City walls. **(Imagine the Vanguard room from Destiny 1) **There were six individuals standing around a large holo-table. On the left side of the table was the Warlock and Titan Vanguard leaders, Custos standing between the two. Then there were the three leaders of the civilian faction in the City.

At the far right of the table was Executor Hideo, the ruler of New Monarchy. He seemed incredibly sullen for some reason, like someone who'd just had their life shattered before their eyes. Then, seated next to his left was Lakshimi-2, the leader of the Future War Cult. She seemed contemplative, though he could somehow sense a degree of approval as she seemed to scan each of the UNSC personnel for weaknesses. Finally, seated closest to the entrance was Arach Jalaal, the coordinator for Dead Orbit. Contrary to Hideo, the awoken man appeared to full of barely suppressed joy. Wonder what made him so happy.

I step off to the side and allow the Captain as well as Doctor Anders to take the stage. Before they could begin however, Commander Zavala steps forward and begins to speak. "Captain Cutter, I'm certain that as a military man you will appreciate my bluntness. We are fully willing to give you a decommissioned FTL drive from an old colony ship. The drive can reach up to 50 light years per day and should work for your ship, we will give it to you free of charge. However, if you agree to do one thing, we will not only give you a better FTL engine, but a full combat refit for your ship and all the military and technological aid we can offer for the UNSC's war on the 'Covenant,' as long as we draw breath." With that offer the Captain and Anders froze. It was generous, way too generous. What was the catch? Did they want the UNSC to clean out their system? Impossible, we'd seen the charts. Their enemies had been digging in for centuries. We wouldn't be able to remove them without massive casualties, casualties we could ill afford with the Covenant breathing down our necks. "What would you like us to do?" The Captain asked. Even if we didn't agree to it in the end, an offer like that was too good to not even consider.

Arach Jalaal stepped forward and with a flourish he bowed and asked. "We, the people of the Last City, formally request asylum within UNSC space."


End file.
